the Prisoner ( The Prisoner ) is a British Televised series in 17 48 minutes episodes, created by George Markstein and Patrick McGoohan and diffused between on October 1st 1967 and the February 4th 1968 on the network ITV. In France, the series was diffused starting from the February 18th 1968 on the second channel of ORTF but without episodes 13,14 and 15, nor the ultimate episode which will be programmed only years later on another chain.
The Village is that of Portmeirion in the western north of the Wales, created by Sir Clough Williams-Elect. The styles Spanish, Austrian, Italian and Greek are represented with Portmeirion.
Synopsis
A secret agent (interpreted by Patrick McGoohan) resigns brutally of its station and returns at his place at the wheel of its Lotus Seven. Whereas it is packing its bags in its London apartment, an anesthetic gas is diffused in the part. With its alarm clock, it is found in the Village , a place Idyllique and esthetic inhabited by an insular community made up on the one hand of villagers numbered like him and, on the other hand, their geôliers, two classes indifférenciables. It will be from now on the Numéro 6 and will not have of cease to escape from the Village. Curiously, he is the only inhabitant in this village to try to escape. He will finally manage to escape for good in the last episode. According to Gilles Visy, in this episode " the Numéro 6 will métaphoriquement play métaphoriquement part of failure against enigmatic number 1 via number 2. It is not without pointing out the knight of the Seventh Seal which fights death on the chess-board of the vie."
Hang
- Where am I? ( Where amndt I? )- At the Village. ( In the Village. )
- What is what you want? ( What want C you? )
- Information. ( Information. )
- In which camp are you? ( Whose side are you one? )
- You will know it in good time… We want information, information, information. ( That would Be telling. We want Information, Information, Information! )
- You will not have any! ( You won' T get it. )
- About liking or force, you will speak. ( By hook gold by crook, we will. )
- Which are you? ( Who are you? )
- I am the new Number Two. ( The new Number 2. )
- Which is the Number one? ( Who is Number 1? )
- You are the Numéro 6. ( You are Number 6. )
- I AM NOT A NUMBER, I AM A FREE MAN! ( I AM NOT HAS NUMBER, I AM HAS FREE MAN! )
Distribution
- Patrick McGoohan (VF: Jacques Thébault) : Number 6
- Angelo Muscatel: The Master of hotel
- Peter Swanwick: The supervisor
“Number 2”
The number 2, which failed to obtain information of number 6, was replaced and interpreted by a different actor with each episode.However, certain actors hold this role on several occasions:
- Leo McKern :
- the Chime of Big Ben ( The Chimes off Big Ben )
- It was once ( Once upon has time )
- the Outcome ( The fallout ).
- Hake Gordon:
- has, B and C ( has, B & C )
- the brain/the general ( The General )
Three women hold this role:
- Mary Morris: Dance of dead ( Dance off the dead )
- Rachel Herbert: Freedom for all ( Free for all )
- Georgina Cookson: The return ( Many happy returns )
To note that, for the two last, their identity as N°2 is revealed only in all end of episode.
Episodes
1: The Arrival ( Arrival )2: The Chime of Big Ben ( The Chimes off Big Ben )
3: With, B, and C ( has, B, and C )
4: Freedom for all ( Free for All )
5: Double personality ( The Schizoid Man )
6: The General ( General The )
7: The Return ( Many Happy Returns )
8: Dance of dead ( Dance off the Dead )
9: Failure and chechmate ( Checkmate )
10: The Hammer and the Anvil ( Hammer Into Anvil )
11: The Burial ( It' S Your Funeral )
12: I changed opinion ( has Exchange Mind off)
13: Impossible Forgiveness ( C Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling )
14: Soft music ( Living room in Harmony )
15: Death goes from there ( The Girl Who Was Death )
16: It was once ( Once Upon has Time )
17: The Outcome ( Fall Out )
Comments
The series gave to place to abundant interpretations, fan-clubs, caused Web sites, the firm of cars Renault with the same taken again topic of the Prisoner to make a publicity, and that is not astonishing so much it skilfully uses what Stanley Kubrick named the fertile zone of ambiguity . In fact, each one can see in the prisoner what it has desire for seeing there. The “village” wouldn't it be the symbol of the human condition, and the “Numéro 6” the poor human one which seeks, without reaching always that point, to give him direction? Isn't this “number 1” that one never sees (except with the last episode) an allegory of God, and the “numbers two” which are followed and do not resemble a personification, for example, of all those which in a contradictory way during the ages affirmed to act as its name? It is in any case one of the possible assumptions among good of others.
The springs of the anguish rest on the nonsense of the system of operation of this surrealist village on which it does not manage to act. Permanent prey of the interrogations of number 2: " We want renseignements" , it tries to fight and flee to escape this distressing universe. This series constitutes an allegory of the totalitarian modes without any doubt, Numéro 6 tries to fight by respecting the règles.
The evening a voice escapes from the microphones laid out a little everywhere in the village to announce the curfew: " More than five minutes before the extinction of the lumières." the Numéro 6 is supervised constantly by an innumerable quantity of cameras. The village has an undeniable side 1984 of Orwell, a side Kafkaïen and prison.
The village is also a caricature of our daily world, a universe esthetic and ludic (cordless phone, carries automatic, credit card), invaded by publicity, a gilded cage in which only Numéro 6 seems lucid and given to leave there, the inhabitants greet themselves of a " Be seeing you! " translated into French by " Hello on your premise! ". Number 2 incarnates the temporary political power, the white ball represents the police force, this named ball " the rodeur" is without form, impersonal, worrying with the image of a watchtower in a concentration camp. The black suit of the Numéro 6 points out at the same time a dress of priest (Patrick McGoohan was to enter the orders but gave up it) and the fascistic uniform. The others living cover very coloured costumes but evolve/move in a system without any feeling, any love and often have very eccentric behaviors.
" The Prisoner evokes a schizophrenic form of psychosis because the individual fights against the system while trying to escape from it: " " What is it? " and " Who is this? " are the two great questions of the fear. The simple formulation of such questions implies a tremor of reality announcing all the phantasms of the double, all the symptoms of dissociation characteristic of schizophrenia: maybe of this decomposition of the heart by which Maupassant precisely defines the fear… But it is also a true praise of the escape. At the oddment, number 6 escapes to return at his place like any person who, having finished her day's work, finds her housing soft for ressourcer.
Patrick McGoohan had played in a “normal” series of espionage which had had an international success: Danger man . This series to the Captive , it does not change anything: neither its initial membership of the secret services, neither its hairstyle, nor its style. All occurs as if one sought to render comprehensible to us that the Prisoner is John Drake, which increases the impression of swing of reality that the series seeks - and succeeds - to give.
For the anecdote, in an episode of Danger man (in French: Destination danger ), the village-hotel of Portmeirion is used. And also, the topic of the double (Schizoïd Man) had been used in Danger man .
Series hangs is used as introduction into The Prisoner of Iron Maiden. The music of the Prisoner is also taken again by The Clash in the title The prisoner.
Who is number 1?
Numéro 6 always supposes that somebody named “number 1” is in load of the Village, but only with 2 recoveries in the series somebody of the authorities of the Village the existence of " recognizes directly; number 1".
- In the final scene of the 16° episode (“it was once”), the Supervisor from Numéro 6, having censured n°2, “That do you wish request? ” . When " Number 6 " answers: “number 1” , the Supervisor answers: “I will take you along” .
- At the end of the 13° episode " Impossible Pardon" the character of the Colonel beseeches " number 2" : “You must contact “number 1” and to say to him that I made my duty” It is not clearly established if the Colonel supposes just that the superior of n°2 is n°1 or if it already met n°1. The Colonel is certainly not a member of the hierarchy of the Village and does not have a number. Incapacoté of Number 6 to interpret this sentence has certainly a direction précis.
In the final episode, n°1 seems a masked and encapuchonnée person. When its mask is withdrawn to him, it carries a mask of monkey, but when this mask is removed to him, the face of Numéro 6 is revealed. It then climbs on a scale and firm a trap door behind him, while laughing like insane.
No clear and direct assertion relating to n°1 is never clearly interpretable. Even when it is the subject of discussion in the series:
- with n°2 in the second episode: “The Chime of Big Ben” which declares: “that does not have importance to know which is n°1” .
- still with n°2 in the 4° episode: “Freedom for all”, when the prisoner and n°2 discuss the consequences to be elected n°2, the old man declares: “n°1 will not be any more one mystery for you, if you include/understand what I want to say” .
According to the Co-creator George Markstein, “N°1 is the unpleasant one with the orders” .
Number 1 could also be at the same time the televiewer and the double of Numéro 6 (one is the side crushes and the other the side face) perhaps number 6 is it insane?.
Antecedents
The topic of a Secret agent placed in an environment whose logic seems Absurde and who fights to keep his mental health had already been evoked in three films before:- Alphaville , of Jean-Luc Godard (1965), subtitle a strange adventure of Lemmy Guarantee ). Eddie Constantine had also interpreted before roles of secret agent to him in conventional spy films.
- IPCRESS, immediate danger ( The IPCRESS spins ), of Len Deighton (1965), where one subjects a secret agent (interpreted by Michael Caine) to a loss of landmarks in order to destabilize it.
- the she-cat leaves its claws , of Henri Decoin (1960), where one carries out a Lavage of brain same kind with a agente of information Frenchwoman, subjected with a treatment which will dépersonnalisera it.
Episodes
The amateurs of the series do not intend themselves on the order to consider during the diffusion. Several attempts were made in order to determine a universal order, without success considering the diffusers, the owners of the series, the creators and the amateurs have an order well with them.During its first diffusion in France, the episode The General was translated by the brain , in order to avoid any confusion with Charles de Gaulle, president of the Republic at the time of the turning of the series. This precaution will be raised a few years later when ambiguity is definitively drawn aside by time.
The series comprises 17 episodes, however McGoohan had envisaged to make only Sept. of it In order to promote export towards the the United States, the television channels of the time as regards televised series required the standard of the time to knowing 26 episodes. The decision makers of the time agreed finally on 17 episodes. There is however always a debate as for knowing if the stop of the series were the result of a mutual agreement between the parts or if the series purely and were simply cancelled.
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